MGM watching the Coast

"MGM Grand is watching developments more closely than most," said analyst Bruce Turner of Salomon Smith Barney. "Mississippi probably represents the best market for construction of new projects for the next several years."

A lot hinges on the success of Beau Rivage, the unfinished, 1,780-room casino hotel being built by Mirage Resorts.

"If it does well," Turner said, "I think you will see others follow."

MGM is not encouraging the speculation.

"I don't know where he (Turner) got that," MGM Chief Financial Officer Jim Murren said. "Not from us. He doesn't talk to us."

Mirage Resorts and the recent merger of Hilton Hotels and Grand Casinos, which operates casino hotels in Biloxi and Gulfport, are ushering in an era of big-cap gambling companies on the Coast.

Harrah's has long been rumored to be interested in the region. But chairman Phil Satre last week in Las Vegas said the company "is focused on New Orleans," where it is planning to reopen the shuttered Harrah's Jazz casino on Canal Street near the French Quarter.

MGM owns the Strip hotel by the same name and the New York-New York resort on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard. It also owns a resort casino in Darwin, Australia, and recently bought three Primadonna properties - Primadonna, Whiskey Pete's and Buffalo Bill's - on the Nevada-California border.

MGM manages South African casinos and is building a casino hotel in Detroit. MGM also plans to build a casino hotel in Atlantic City.

Because beach-front property is scarce, a major casino and lodging company with the capital needed to enter the Coast market - $300 million, minimum - would likely buy an existing operator.

One industry analyst said MGM could create synergy on the President Casino Broadwater Resort property by building an upscale MGM Grand resort adjacent to a hotel for budget-conscious travelers, one that would fit the profile of those on the Nevada-California border.

The analyst said a roller coaster similar to those that Primadonna built at New York-New York and its stateline properties could lure families to the Coast. Primadonna Chairman Gary Primm once made an offer to buy the 250-acre site.

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